Aerodynamically stabilized projectile system for use against underwater objects
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsJeffrey A. Brown, Reed Copsey, Marshall Tulin, Roy Kline
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Abstract
A projectile is propelled from a location in air, through an air/water interface, and toward a submerged underwater object. The projectile includes a forward end that forms a cavitation void around the projectile in water, avoiding water drag on the remainder of the projectile. The projectile further includes an outwardly flared or finned rearward end that aerodynamically stabilizes the projectile in air and flare stabilizes it in water, in each case against yaw.
Claims20
A projectile system comprising a generally cylindrical symmetric projectile with a projectile forward end and a projectile rearward end, the projectile having:
- a stinger head at the projectile forward end, the stinger head including
- a stinger nose having a nose maximum diameter, and
- a stinger body having a stinger body forward end joined to a rearward end of the stinger nose, the stinger body including
- a stinger nose support having a nose support diameter, and
- a flow separation groove between the stinger nose support and the stinger nose, the flow separation groove having a groove diameter less than the nose maximum diameter;
- a generally cylindrical symmetric projectile body joined to the stinger head, the projectile body having
- a projectile afterbody having a projectile afterbody diameter greater than the nose maximum diameter, wherein the projectile afterbody comprises
- a cylindrical central region, and
- a plurality of grooves in the central region, and
- a projectile forebody joined to the stinger nose support at a forward end and to the projectile afterbody at a rearward end;
- and
- a set of fins joined to the projectile rearward end for stabilizing the projectile against lateral instability.
The projectile systems of claim 11, further comprising a discardable sabot affixed around the projectile.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.